Many users here ( and even more that you may support) have looked back upon XP as the greatest OS to come out of Redmond. But very few remember that before XP was loved, it was hated. In fact, it was more than hated, users loathed it. WGA (product activation), the Luna theme, and numerous other technologies had users in a fury, ready to pounce on Redmond as if they were a misbehaving child not listening to their mother (customers), in much the same way users are now with Windows 8. Thanks to the Flux Capacitor we know as the Internet, traces of the frustration can still be found. Ars Technica writer Peter Bright (@DrPizza) brought forth some of that evidence in a new article of his.

I remember switching from W2000 as soon as RC1(or possibly RC2) was released, just for the media features. Having said that, WGA (genuine advantage...yeah, right... ) remains an awful idea, and the Luna theme really did and does make XP look like a Fisher-Price toy. But I don't actually seem to remember a reception that was in any way similar to the one that 8 got.

Hated it. Didn't get passable till SP2, and still wasn't a fan of it's ability to cheese me off at every turn. Especially liked how Explorer would randomly seize up or crash on a whim, even better when it left "trails" all over the screen. Spent more time in BSD and Linux during those years, although they won me back bigtime with 7.

Yup, lots hated it until severel updates came out. Same will be said for Win8 probably, but not after several updates. Which is MS problem. They cant release a good OS from the start and have to go back and make corrections.

I remember saving up money to switch my eMachines eOne from Windows 98 to XP. Still to this day remember how ###### I was that, I couldn't get any drivers to install or find any drivers and had to revert back to 98SE. Loved XP when I finally got my Sony Vaio a year later, but remember how quick I ditched the Luna theme

No offense, but some of those reasons are very weak. The "Luna" theme could easily be disabled and you could use schemes similar to Windows 9x. The Windows activation...well...it is what it is and hasn't changed since. The other growing pain was going to the NT kernel...but once again...that is what it is. Windows 8, on the other hand, made unnecessary changes and forced a Frankenstein mash up of mobile and desktop interfaces. Where as Windows XP was a success (by all accounts and longevity), Windows 8 is becoming the next Windows ME. Granted, with each Windows 8 update they are improving it and with the return of the start menu and hopefully the ability to bury Metro into a deep dark pit where it belongs (for me anyways).

I loved it. I said at the time "it was the best OS yet". Until Win 7. I'm speaking of stability and security. Xp was the end of Blue screens for me with the exception of a hardware issue from time to time. With Win ME Microsoft should have paid me for the blue screens I received.

I started using it right away coming from Windows 98se. I was one of the lucky ones to not run into any major hardware issues. Was using a Pentium 3 800mhz w/ 256MB RAM Compaq Presario 5k. The increased resource usage prompted me to move to 512MB rather quickly and then to 1GB a couple years later.

I loved it but then I came from windows ME which would crash at least twice a day.

That is also my memory of the Windows ME to XP. ME was horrible whereas XP was nice and stable. A few weeks before XP was released I put together a new computer (Athlon XP 1500?) and in while waiting I had ME on there....horrible. Before that Athlon computer I think I had been running ME on an older Intel Pentium II something something...but yea...it also crashed more than 98 which it had replaced. XP to me ended the frustration of random bluescreens and lock ups.